Durham postman captures incredible photos of rare Arctic fox on trip to northern Canada

A Durham postal worker turned photographer has shared some of the incredible pictures taken on his bucket-list trip to the North Pole - which impressed renowned wildlife photographers and indigenous communities alike.

David Gibbon captured one of the rarest mammals on the planet, the Arctic wolf, as well as the muskox on his trip to Ellesmere Island in northern Canada.

He told ITV Tyne Tees it took eight flights to get there, but the muskox was his "dream image" to snap.

"I couldn't believe that I captured it. Muskoxes are from the Ice Age. They are like a prehistoric beast and they are only found in the high Arctic," he said.

"I lay on the ground as a heard of them charged towards me. They can actually kill you. They weigh tonnes but I wanted to get a shot of them charging to me straight on."

Mr Gibbon said award-winning photographers on Instagram, including National Geographic contributors, had reacted to the photo on Instagram.

He told ITV Tyne Tees the trip took three years to plan and said when he finally saw the Arctic wolf it "felt incredible".

Mr Gibbon said: "There are only 200 Arctic wolves left and Ellesmere Island is over 75,000 square metres. It's the rarest mammal in the world."

Temperatures during his trip dropped to minus 50 degrees at times, with the postman wearing snow boots designed for minus 100.

Mr Gibbon spent time with the indigenous Inuit community on the island, who helped him find the wildlife across its vast surface area.

He said his next trip will take him to Greenland, where he hopes to capture more incredible photographs.

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